Willoughby Mariano
Sentinel Staff Writer
April 7, 2009
An Orlando man faces a first-degree murder charge after, police say, he fatally stabbed his wife Monday because she threatened to leave him and take their children.
Police were called to the 4800 block of Stony Brook Lane about 8:05 a.m. afterDaniel Martinez, 38, told emergency dispatchers he had stabbed his wife. They found Martinez standing in the driveway and Maria Estela Lopez Soto, 36, on the living-room floor.
Soto had no vital signs. She was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Martinez said he and Soto shared the home in the Signal Hill neighborhood for seven years, and they had been estranged for two months. Soto still had a key to the house, Martinez told police, and he heard her enter about 6 a.m., the report states.
Martinez confronted Soto, and their argument turned violent when the wife said she took Martinez's Social Security card from his wallet to give to her new boyfriend. She added she was taking the children to live with her and her boyfriend out of state, he told investigators. Martinez grabbed a knife from the kitchen counter and stabbed her repeatedly, according to the report. When the attack was finished, he changed shirts.
An autopsy showed Soto was stabbed about 10 times, the report states. Soto's slaying was the ninth in Orlando this year.
Martinez was being held in Orange County Jail without bail.
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